The Shedd Institute
www.theshedd.org - 541.434.7000
Shedd Theatricals 2017
of paid rehearsal and performance while
auditioning to find your next gig. Talk to
any actor of color, going out for a third of
the auditions per week that are available
for white actors, and you will understand
what OSF, whose company has a majority
of POC actors, is doing for diversity.
For that matter, talk to Daniel Dae Kim
and Grace Park — stars of Hawaii Five-0,
who just left the show because they were
being paid 10 to 15 percent less than their
white colleagues — about what OSF is do-
ing to even the scales.
OSF features and commissions authors
of color every season, providing even more
opportunities for POC actors, writers and
directors to tell their stories.
Rick, tell the 10-year old South Asian
girl, who saw (through her public school at
a reduced price) a production of King Lear
with the titular character’s three daughters
all played by actors of different ethnicities,
and realized then and there that she could
be brown and still be chosen to play some
of the most interesting and complex char-
acters ever written, that OSF’s diversity ini-
tiatives are fraudulent. She doesn’t buy it.
Arun Storrs
Los Angeles
(formerly South Eugene)
LOST IN THE WOODS
Regarding your article on prescribed
fire (“Rx: Fire,” June 22), particularly the
quote from the Forest Service about “open-
ing forest canopies a little bit and removing
the understory,” federal agencies and the
Nature Conservancy prescribe forests be
taken down to 30 to 40 percent — hardly
a little bit.
Removing the understory would devas-
tate plants and animals living there. Most
prescribed burning is done in spring, when
emerging vegetation and animal life is
vulnerable to damage by fire and, because
it’s so moist, amounts to spreading around
poorly ignited diesel fuel.
Ecological management should be
targeted: prairies and oak savannas in
the Willamette Valley or ponderosa pine
woodlands east of the Cascades, not all
forests in Oregon. Judicious fuels manage-
ment should be done around homes and
communities as the first priority of fire
safety. Anything less is a distraction.
Fires often initiate brushy and dense
conditions that were historically common.
Dense forests are not inherently unhealthy.
Contrary to what this article suggests,
most forests are perfectly healthy save
those heavily impacted by industrial log-
ging. The forest is not in need of saving
from itself but rather from misguided man-
agement.
Please research these issues better to
avoid becoming a mouthpiece for federal
agency and Nature Conservancy propa-
ganda.
Dominic DiPaolo
Selma
NO VINIS FAN
July 21-30 - The Shedd
The critical letters about Mayor Vinis
won’t be the last in regards to her posi-
tions and performance. In the rush to de-
feat Mike Clark, Eugene picked a mayor
that will at best deliver the status quo, and
whose incompetence and lack of experi-
ence will do more harm that good.
Don French
Eugene
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will print as many as space allows, with priority given to
timely local issues. Please limit length to 200 words and
include your address and phone number for our files.
Email to letters@eugeneweekly.com, fax to 484-4044 or
mail to 1251 Lincoln, Eugene 97401.
@EUGENEWEEKLY
Oregon Festival of American Music 2017
The Sweetest Melody
Giants of the Classic Songbook August 2-12 - The Shedd
eugeneweekly.com • July 13, 2017
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